London Shortwave

This blog is dedicated to shortwave radio listening in the 21st century: the art of tuning into the signals of radio stations that are transmitting from thousands of kilometres away without the use of the Internet. It can be viewed as a fun hobby but also as a way to maintain an alternative, independent means of obtaining information in our digital age. Posts cover topics including shortwave radio equipment and accessories, station profiles, program recordings and shortwave radio history.

On August 6th, 2018, while recording the 22 and the 19 meter bands outdoors using my ultra-portable spectrum capture set-up, I decided to dust off my trusty Tecsun PL-680, hook it up to a simple long wire external antenna and use this rather sensitive radio to venture out to the opposite end of the shortwave spectrum: the 49 meter band. After tuning around for a few minutes I came across Radio Fana on 6110 kHz, which is one of Ethiopia's national stations broadcasting in the Oromo language. Below is my recording of it, starting at 1800 UTC, which I have also shared on the Shortwave Archive.

Radio Fana's transmitter is located in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. The transmission is non-directional and typically has a power rating of 100 kW. Reception improves markedly around the 30 minute mark in the recording.

At 1900 UTC China Radio International's blowtorch signal eclipsed Radio Fana's transmission, so I continued exploring the nearby frequencies. By chance, I stumbled across an English news bulletin from the Voice of America on 6080 kHz that alluded to what Radio Fana had just been reporting in Oromo (namely, the unrest in the Somali province of Ethiopia that resulted in the resignation its regional leader):

After listening to this news bulletin I decided to jump across to the 31 meter band and quickly found myself listening to this rather nice song on All India Radio's National Channel on 9380 kHz:

After spending the past few months mostly recording portions of the shortwave spectrum outdoors with my various software defined radios I had forgotten how much fun it is to use the Tecsun PL-680 radio, the sensitivity of which easily rivals that of most of the SDRs I have used so far. I'll be sure to use it more often to discover what's happening on the bands while I'm making outdoor spectrum recordings.
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Channel Africa recorded outdoors in London, UK on July 31, 2018 at 1700 UTC, on the frequency of 11885 kHz using GPDWin, AirSpy R2, SpyVerter 2, Bonito GI300 isolator and Bonito MA305 active antenna. The transmitter is located in Meyerton, South Africa. This transmission had a power rating of 500 kW and was directed towards Central and West Africa. The recording contains a news bulletin discussing contested election results in Zimbabwe and Mali.

Radio Japan in English recorded in London, UK on July 26, 2018 at 0500 UTC, on the frequency of 9860 kHz using, SDR#, AirSpy Mini, SpyVerter and DX Engineering NCC-1 phaser connected to two Wellbrook ALA1530S+ antennas (positioned indoors) to mitigate severe local man-made interference. The transmitter is located in Santa Maria di Galeria, Italy. This transmission had a power rating of 250 kW and was directed towards West Africa.

The recording contains the news bulletin announcing the execution of the six members of a Japanese doomsday cult, Aum Shinrikyo (including its leader, Shoko Asahara -- real name Chizuo Matsumoto), who were held responsible for the deaths of dozens of people.

Below is a 30 minute recording of a Digital Radio Mondiale transmission from Radio Kuwait. Roughly speaking, DRM broadcasts are the shortwave (long distance) equivalent of DAB radio, where the audio is encoded digitally to save bandwidth, and — in the case of DRM — improve audio quality. This DRM stream was decoded from an outdoor spectrum recording made on 20/07/18 at 1830 UTC using my ultra-portable spectrum capture set-up. The program starts with the news, followed by western pop music. The video contains diagnostic information in the form of the DRM signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) and dropped audio frames. Although DRM broadcasts are usually more challenging to pick up than their analogue counterparts, I would classify this reception as excellent.

This post breaks with tradition in that the news events it mentions are listed backwards in time. The post is a collection of recordings I made off shortwave, reflecting significant milestones in the North Korean nuclear crisis to date. The recordings were made between September 3, 2017, when the DPRK conducted its sixth and most powerful nuclear test to date, and June 13, 2018, when the North Korean state media reported the meeting between Kim Jong Un and the 45th US President, Donald Trump, one day after the event.

Voice of America's news bulletin, captured immediately following the above broadcast. 15580 kHz recorded outdoors in London, UK on 13/06/18 at 1400 UTC using a Tecsun PL-310 radio and a clip-on long wire antenna.

12/06/18: the North Korea summit in Singapore — the world media react (apart from North Korea)